Carbon black is a commonly used black colorant of high color density (coloring per unit weight), a high blackness degree and high light fastness. In efforts to increase toner pigment loading using carbon black, it was revealed that such hyperpigmented black toners exhibited lower charging with high dielectric loss, both of which reduce transfer efficiency and degrade image quality. Black pigments are known to be more conductive than other pigments, however, such carbon black pigments form conductive pathways through the toner particle resulting in the defects or limitations discussed above.
Therefore, there remains a need to increase pigment loading without adversely impacting toner properties, for example, by maintaining or enhancing charging to enable lower cost hyperpigmented toners, black toners and so on.